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en-usEngadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronicsCopyright 2018 AOL Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.https://www.engadget.com/2012/07/11/rim-patent-uses-motion-captchas-to-stop-texting-while-driving/https://www.engadget.com/2012/07/11/rim-patent-uses-motion-captchas-to-stop-texting-while-driving/https://www.engadget.com/2012/07/11/rim-patent-uses-motion-captchas-to-stop-texting-while-driving/#comments

More and more people understand that texting while driving is a bad idea, but RIM has just been granted a patent that would have smartphones step in before things get out of hand. Going beyond just filtering inbound messages like some motion-based lockdown apps, the BlackBerry maker's invention also turns off the creation of any outbound messages as long as the phone is moving within a given speed range. The override for the lock is the dictionary definition of ironic, however: the technique makes owners type out the answer to a CAPTCHA challenge onscreen, encouraging the very problem it's meant to stop. As much as we could still see the hassle being enough to deter some messaging-addicted drivers, we have a hunch that the miniscule hurdle is a primary reason why the 2009-era patent hasn't found its way into a shipping BlackBerry. Maybe RIM should have chronic texters solve a Rubik's Cube instead.

At their worst, captchas are impossible to decipher; at their best, they're... fun? A startup called Are You a Human has developed PlayThru, an alternative to text-based authentication. Instead of requiring the user to type some blurry, nonsensical word, PlayThru has them play a mini-game, such as dragging and dropping a car into an open parking spot. The startup says this method is more secure than word captchas -- since automated bots have a harder time solving these image-based puzzles -- and more fun, because users generally have a better time when their ability to identify letters isn't called into question. PlayThru has been in beta for several months and is currently available as a free download. On May 21st, the solution will officially launch on both PCs and smartphones. Click through to the source link to try out the captcha alternative for yourself.

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are you a humanare you a human playthruareyouahumanareyouahumanplaythruauthenticationauthenticatorcaptchacaptchasgamegamesplaythruThu, 03 May 2012 23:49:00 -040021|20230212https://www.engadget.com/2011/11/02/stanford-program-cracks-text-based-captchas-shelters-the-replic/https://www.engadget.com/2011/11/02/stanford-program-cracks-text-based-captchas-shelters-the-replic/https://www.engadget.com/2011/11/02/stanford-program-cracks-text-based-captchas-shelters-the-replic/#commentsCAPTCHAs. In the absence of a Voigt-Kampff apparatus, they're what separate the humans from the only-posing-to-be-human. And now three Stanford researchers have further blurred that line with Decaptcha, a program that uses image processing, segmentation and a spell-checker to defeat text-based CAPTCHAs. Elie Bursztien, Matthieu Martin and John Mitchell pitted Decaptcha against a number of sites: it passed 66% of the challenges on Visa's Authorize.net and 70% at Blizzard Entertainment. At the high end, the program beat 93% of MegaUpload's tests; at other end, it only bested 2% of those from Skyrock. Of the 15 sites tried, only two completely repelled Decaptcha's onslaught -- Google and reCaptcha. So what did the researchers learn from this? Randomization makes for better security; random lengths and character sizes tended to thwart Decaptcha, as did waving text. How long that will remain true is anyone's guess, as presumably SkyNet is working on a CAPTCHA-killer of its own.
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altcaptchacaptchasdecaptchadeckardelie bursztieneliebursztiengooglejohn mitchelljohnmitchellmatthieu martinmatthieumartinmegauploadphillip k. dickphillipk.dickrecaptchareplicantskynetskyrockstanfordvoigt-kampff apparatusvoigt-kampffapparatusWed, 02 Nov 2011 20:40:00 -040021|20096851